Posted by tabitha on March 15, 2004, at 21:36:07
I've lost my center. The weekend was crazy. I went shopping, found nothing acceptable, so decided to do some sewing. Spent a day going to fabric store, websurfing sewing info, and struggling to make a '2 hour' top. It's mostly done, but I'm stuck on the last part.
Got an estimate on paint/stucco from a guy Sunday, and signed the contract on the spot. It's not like me to do that. I had some misgivings about the price and the procedure he described, but the plus side was he said they could start Monday (today). I wrote a deposit check to him.
This morning they didn't show up before I left for work and I called the guy's cell. He said he's in Portland but he'd find out and call back within 1/2 hour. He didn't call back. I got a little freaked, realizing I knew nothing about this company except they'd left a flyer on my door, I'd talked to an answering service, then seen the sales pitch. I looked up in yellow pages, the BBB site, and google, absolutely nothing on the company at all! No phone book listing, no BBB membership, zero google hits. The sales guy has said the company was in business since 1977 and had 12 crews working-- how could it leave no trace? I freaked. Decided the guy was a con artist, leaving flyers, giving the pitch, collecting checks, then leaving town.
I went through this whole damage control plan. I needed to get home, find the check number, try to stop payment, then if it was cashed already call the police and report the fraud. I debated buying some wine after dealing with the police. I decided to hide this shameful victimization from everyone except my support group. I'd mentioned to a couple people about starting this job-- I'd just tell them I cancelled the job. I kept thinking it's only money, I'll recover. It's a wakeup call to do my homework on these things (I usually do).
So I got home and they had started. Not much, but definitely someone had been there. I looked up the business license number and sure enough it exists. I still don't get why no phonebook listing and no BBB listing, or why he didn't call back.I'm feeling stressed out, far from my center. How can I get it back? Dinner, yoga, early bed, early to work. Right? Nobody can take my center. Nobody can take my center.
poster:tabitha
thread:324803
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20040305/msgs/324803.html